Messier 77 (lower right) and NGC 1055 (upper left) are two galaxies in Cetus.

M77 is a face-on barred spiral type II Seyfert galaxy with an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) believed to be powered by a massive black hole. It is fairly bright at a visual magnitude of 8.9, with an apparent size of 6 x 7 arcminutes. It is located 52 arcminutes southeast of delta Ceti.

M77 is 60 million light-years away and has a diameter of 170,000 light-years. It is the brightest and closest Seyfert galaxy. It was discovered on October 29, 1780 by Pierre Méchain who originally described it as a nebula.

NGC 1055 is an edge-on SB spiral galaxy with a dust lane located 1/2 degree north-northwest of M77. It is part of a galaxy group that is dominated by M77. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 19, 1783. Like M77, it also lies 60 million light-years away.

North is to the left in the above image.

Messier 77 and NGC 1055 Catalogs: M77, NGC 1068, UGC 2188 NGC 1055, UGC 2173 Common Name: M77: Cetus A Object Type: M77: SA Spiral Galaxy NGC 1055: SB Spiral Galaxy Magnitude: M77: 8.9v NGC 1055: 10.6v Size: M77: 9' x 8' NGC 1055: 7.6' x 3' Constellation: Cetus Image Field Centered At: RA: 02h 42m 15s Dec: +00° 13' 33" Individual galaxy coordinates can be found in the Master List.